Journalism on Wheels

"KIA RIO
Two stars/5.
7,495 - 10,395 Pounds

-The sales blurb reckons the Rio can 'seduce you with its fancy features such as driver's seat height adjustment, and power steering.' It's got inflatable tires too, and windows.

BAD!"

"NISSAN GT-R
FIVE STARS.
59,400 - 60,700 Pounds

- Godzilla just got more god-like. Big, deft, devastatingly fast and a bargain compared with similarly powered vehicles ( -Ferrari- F430, Space Shuttle). We put it against a (Porsche) 911 Turbo, and it won.

GOOD!"

"FERRARI 612 SCAGLIETTI
Three stars.
212, 618 Pounds

-Climb in blindfolded. Remove mask, and thrash the life out of it. Superb. Climb out and stare at it and.... Oh dear. Fine, if expensive GT with genuinely usable rear seats.

UGLY!"

-CAR UK, May 2010. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Nope, I have no intention of demoting KIA and Ferrari, nor promoting Nissan. Not at all. Then, why on earth these three quotes? Well, they are just a sample of the beauty of car magazines. A healthy dose of the talent those people engaged in automotive journalism possess. When it comes to this sort of downright, harsh criticism, there is no better place than CAR's GBU (Good, Bad and Ugly). The segment, found at the last part of the mag, tests almost all the cars sold in the UK, and wraps up the stats in a nutshell, with some punchy mini - verdicts. 

                                   Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. Comment on the looks. 

Don't frown. I know, many non - enthusiasts won't find these interesting, let alone appealing or humorous. But, for car nuts, there can be fewer things more entertaining than reading a car magazine (there can be, such as driving a Porsche/ Lambo/ Ferrari, or a NISSAN GT-R). Why the italics? Well, I'm referring to the tangible magazines made of paper, not the ones that appear on your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone screen. 

The only truly useful stall at the Colombo International Book Fair for me is the Vijitha Yapa Associates' bookstall. On almost all of my CIBF visits, I'd actually spend at least half a day there, frantically skimming through all the cut-price old car mags (not that old, may be one or two years, or three at most). Their price when new can be easily termed as unacceptably high, so buying them sometime later is easily a bargain. You may not get the latest info, but for that you have the internet. Nothing can come close to the effect of a well written piece on a car. It makes you feel the car, without may be even seeing it in flesh. How on earth do I have a reverence for the Porsche 911 GT3, or the Lambo Murcielago, or even the Audi Ur Quattro, a car which stopped production back in 1991, the year I was born? How did I become a theoretical expert in Evos? How did I start to respect Audi as a brand brimming with build quality? With plenty of thanks to the authors, and contributors of Autocar and CAR, and occasionally some other magazine. And those writers definitely had a lot of influence on my English usage. 

Technology is overtaking humanity at a rapid pace. Smartphone era is ushering a brand new age, and internet has drastically reduced the actual need for printed media. But hardly anything can replace the feel of an actual book, or a magazine. May be that's why the newspaper has survived the test of its age. Forget the 'net ,theoretically the television should have made the 'paper' obsolete almost decades back. But the newspaper still soldiers on without any fear of being obsolete. For me, my car - magazine era started way before the internet became a part of my life. They were the only sources of knowledge I could afford, on automobiles, beyond what I had already known. That's why, even after a net search on car news has become daily routine, sitting down to read a car mag feels so unique, so special. The moment you fold it back, you've refreshed a lot, and are driving quite a few cars by heart. Something the virtual - mags, or news sites can never achieve. 

NEVER.

Pause - Play

What shall I write for the description? Is the introduction adequate? Will the course work be repeated? How am I going to complete this? When? And I haven't touched statistics. Riemann is too hard to even think about. 

The retired cassette player looms in front of me, gazing emptily at the room. The buttons that once transformed the room into a concert hall have become dusty. Still, their functions during the heydays are there to be seen peeping through the dust. Record, play, rewind, fast - forward, eject, and, pause. Pause.

Some words I penned down, or typed (more aptly) after sitting down underneath a tree, letting my mind wander freely, leaving behind all the duties.. And it was sometime back.

"Take your time off, and relax in the outside world. Sit underneath a shady tree and rest, and leave the world's woes behind. Hear the leaves rustle to the tune of the soft breeze.. Watch the uneasy clouds hurrying through the skyline, for you to see the blue sky.. Hear the birds chatter.. Watch a playful squirrel test his jumping skills.. Feel the soft breeze taking all your pains away, in a way that no air conditioner would have done.. Love the greenery that gives you the purified air to breath.. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the bliss of mother nature.. Heaven's not far away.."

This is not the time to rest, not the time to relax, and type a blog article. Mid - semester exams are waiting to have us for dinner by the middle of this week. There's a virtually untouched course work, with a late - deadline scheduled for tomorrow. But, need a break, need a pause. Need to stay back for a moment, and see how far we have run, without pausing for a moment, in a marathon that seemingly never ends. 

A pause to adore the nature which gives us the blissful life. A pause to observe the playful birds, a pause to feel the mild breeze, a pause to listen to the song of a river, a pause to see the sun bidding good bye to the weeping horizon..

A pause to let the creative creature in you out. A pause to pen down a poem, a pause to scribble on something, a pause to sing as loudly as you can, no matter how frightening that can be to anyone who listens. A pause to fiddle with an instrument, a pause to sketch that sight you loved.

A pause to appreciate art. A pause to sink deep down in a carefully crafted novel, a pause to run wild among the thoughts that are awakened from a painting, a pause to feel the pain of the songwriter of a melancholy song.

Yeah, take a well deserved break from the hooligans of the complex world. Take a break from the world where every single thing in your daily routine has become motorized, automated. Don't let yourself be drowned in that automation. 

Think about it. Duties are important, and deserve priority, but mind needs a rest. The soul needs a rest. It's those little moments that you'll cherish, beyond all the materialistic gains.

Time's up. Course work is due tomorrow. 

Deal, or NO DEAL?

Give and take. A deal.

Life is all about deals you make, both physical deals - involving the lifeless matter, and social deals, involving those who live around you. In fact, relationships are all about making deals, whether you like it or not. The only, ONLY exception can be the parent - children relationship. This is specially observed in animals, rather than humans. A video of a mother duck fighting her life out to protect her ducklings - I'm not sure if it's on YouTube, as it has no stupid dance moves or rubbish music of any sort - was really touching. What did the mother duck expect in return? Nothing, nothing AT ALL.

BUT when it comes to almost all other types of relationships, that is NOT the case. It's where you give, and take. If what you are giving is inadequate with respect to what you get, or vice - versa in most cases, the bond can be fragile. A friend who helps you a lot in your hard times will get hurt if you are not there to help him in his tough moment. You'll feel quite disrespectful of a teacher who doesn't teach his/her subject nicely, or treats you (may be personally or as a group) badly. If the boyfriend is not being attentive to his girlfriend's matters, she may be compelled to find an alternative. Once a service provider is not giving you what you want, it will essentially be a loss to his business. Don't pay the bills on time, and you are left in dark. You give way to those coming from the right in the roundabout, and take it when you become the subject. Give, and take. You may say otherwise, and quote some internet wisdom. But this is the abstract truth. Give, and take. Notice the order - GIVE, and take. NOT the other way around.

But today's society, highly modernized and technologically advancing at a rabid (yeah, rabid, rather than rapid) pace, seems not to care about the giving part too much. The over-time desperation for success has left men thriving for what they need, AND NOT on what they have to return. Duties and responsibilities often fight for domination. The overall result is a tattered society which has become increasingly selfish. You have one day dedicated your mother who raised you up, and gave you so much that you can't even imagine of repaying. JUST ONE DAY, and forget her for the remaining three hundred and sixty four days in the calendar. You spend the Valentine's day with your sweetheart, giving her flower bouquets, gifts, lavish dinners, and romantic words, and treat her with total indifference from 15th February onwards. You don't care a bit about the other motorist seeking for some way to get over to the other lane. You take, and get irritated when you don't get it as you wish. But you don't think in the same way when you GIVE. 

The ethics, values and traditions of the society that we live in are deteriorating rapidly (rabidly, I can say). Fifteen odd years back, bitch was total filth. But now it's such an integrated component in the vocabulary. May be for reasons that are not very bad, but still it indicates a pathetic decline in the values. The society is forgetting its duty, DUTY of giving the RIGHT amount. That leads to some sort of deprivation. And the party concerned too is human, meaning that he/she/they will feel very upset about not getting what they want. This invariably leads them to find an alternative method to fulfill their needs. And their ways? Think of it. They start off with a modest whine. Where do they end up? Protests, divorces, breakups, murders, robberies, WARS!

Admit it, life is full of deals. You take, and you shall GIVE what you ought to give. That doesn't take a lot of work, trust me. A word, a smile, a dollar, a thought, a moment can cure ailments that can cost much more if ignored. So take, take what you need, BUT give what you should, at the RIGHT moment. Deal, or no deal? The answer is yours.